Mama
by QLGingerBlade
Summary: Fill for Kinkmeme prompt about the girl in the stomach acid asking for her mother.


"Mama?"

Eren looked up, hearing the girl's voice.

"Mama, please. . ."

'Mother, huh?'

"Mama, save me. . ."

The girl turned to him. Her eyes widened, and she looked so happy all of the sudden.

"Mama! It's me! Carla! Your daughter!"

_'What?'_

"C'mon, Ellen, don't you recognize your own daughter?"

Eren took a moment to realize. . .

She was talking to him.

What should he do? She looked happy to see him, should he play along? She even has the same name as. . .

"Carla?" he asked. "Carla, is that you?"

It seemed to gauge the right reaction, as she waded over to him.

He could see through the stomach acid that she was swallowed whole. She was a soldier, from the training squad, and he distantly remembered her marvelling over Mikasa's hair in their second year. He never interacted with too many of the others, so it wasn't very easy to remember everyone.

"Mama! We need to leave!"

_"I want to run too! Now hurry up and get out!"_

"Carla, I need you to help me. I got injured."

_"Eren, my legs were crushed by the debris. Even if you got me out, I wouldn't be able to walk."_

"I'll do it! To get us out of here!"

_"Then, I'll carry you! Let's go!"_

The small world around them shifted, and the stomach walls began to disappear.

Someone had defeated the titan.

As the back burst open, Eren could see Armin's form, hovering over the opening.

"Mama! It's a soldier!"

"I know, Carla. I know him. He can help us."

Armin looked slightly confused. A soldier calling another 'Mama'? Eren a mother, of all people? Then he went over what Carla had said, and remembered seeing Franz and Hannah earlier.

"Hey there, miss. You need to help your mother get out of here, okay? Head towards the gate!"

Carla nodded, and helped Eren up.

They rushed off, Eren's remaining arm slung over Carla's shoulders, and he hopped on his leg as fast as he could. As they made their way to the gate and ferries, Eren went over his options in life.

He was now crippled, without most of his arm, and only half a leg.

They wouldn't let him join any expeditions, he knew it. Hell, he might not even be allowed in the army anymore!

He would probably have to get a new job. He always was good at baking and cooking, thanks to his mom. . .

Then there was the matter of Carla. She was convinced that he was her mother, Ellen.

Well, that worked, he supposed.

_'I have a daughter,'_ he thought to himself. _'I am a mother. I need to protect my daughter. And I will.'_

* * *

Mikasa couldn't believe it.

Eren. Her Eren.

He was. . .

His limbs were. . .

No.

No.

No.

No.

The girl was chatting with Eren, calling him 'Mama', telling him that they would be alright, the titans weren't as close, and Eren went along with it. He let her call him 'Mama', he responded by calling her his daughter, calling himself her mother.

Mikasa jumped down from her perch on the roofs, landing in front of them.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes! My daughter, Carla, and I are just going to head over to the gate now."

Mikasa was shocked. This girl's name. . .

"Thank you for asking, ma'am. Good luck out in the field." Eren looked at her, and his eyes told her the message. _'Ask later.'_

She agreed.

* * *

Trost was over. No Armored Titan showed up, for some reason, and Reiner and Bertholdt seemed really shaken up after the attack.

Armin assumed it was due to the fact that they were there when Shiganshina fell, he remembered seeing them in the crowd.

Eren was honorably discharged. He ended up caring for Carla. He asked Armin to go to the outside world for him, and then he started a bakery.

Carla, the girl, really thought Eren was her mother. She even thought that Mikasa was her mother's brother(somehow), and Armin was a family friend of sorts. She too had been honorably discharged, but she didn't register it.

The army with Armin's help, made a pulley system, and pulled the large boulder out and blocked the hole in the wall. The citizens were more than happy to help place it, and the titans that remained in the wall were captured for the use of science.

That was the past four months after the Trost Incident, as Armin called it.

The door jingled as he opened it, the bell a familiar sound, and Eren looked up from behind the counter. His hair was getting long, and more and more often, people mistook him for a girl, which he didn't protest. A hairclip held back the hair on the right side.

"Hello, Armin," the brunet said, smiling for his friend. "I guess you bring good news?"

Armin nodded excitedly. "I met the Lance Corporal today! He's a hardass, and has OCD, but he's pretty cool otherwise! Never been trained more in my life."

Eren hobbled around the counter to hug his friend. He had a prosthetic leg, but that didn't mean he could do much.

"Mama? Is that Armin?"

Carla entered the room, auburn hair styled in a French braid, and it reached her mid-back. Her hands were covered in flour from all the baking she had been doing as of late. She had entirely forgotten about being a soldier from before, and even forgot that her real mother was dead, projecting the image of her mother onto Eren. Everyone had heard about it in the 104th, and they all mourned the loss of her memories.

"Hello, Carla. You taking good care of your mother?" Armin enjoyed seeing the girl each time he came over.

"Of course I am! What kind of daughter would I be if I didn't help her? What kind of daughter do you take me for?"

Amrin laughed. "Don't worry, don't worry, just teasing. I gotta head back soon, though, so I guess, just a ciabatta roll this time."

Carla grabbed the roll, placing it in Armin's bag, and taking the money required. Eren hobbled back around the counter, taking his place on the stool behind it, and waved to his blond-haired friend as he left.

* * *

"Mama?"

Eren turned to his daughter. "Yes?"

"Can. . . can you tell me about your mama?"

_"Have a good day!"_

"She was beautiful. I have a lot of her looks. She was headstrong, and had this unbridled anger, swift and raging, deep inside of her, staying dormant most of the time. I have it too."

_"No! Don't you dare join the Scouting Legion. Are you suicidal or something?!"_

"She was smart, a great cook, and of German descent."

_"Ich habe dich lieb, Eren."_

"She let me learn about medical things from my father, Grisha, and she was very kind when she wanted or needed to be."

_"Are you Mikasa? I'm Carla. Do you want to be my daughter?"_

"She was so much that I don't know how to describe her."

_"Oh! Eren! Haha, why are you so adorable. I'm glad I got you as my son."_

"But above all, she was human. And like all other humans, she passed on."

_"Eren! Mikasa! Live on!"_

"What was her name?"

"Carla. Her name was Carla."

_"Don't go. . . Not my children. . . please, don't go. . ."_

* * *

Jean made his way to the bakery he knew that Eren and his 'daughter' Carla worked. He had yet to enter the store, as he had yet to look Eren in the eye.

He knew that looking at him would hurt. It would hurt so much, because there was something in Eren's eyes when he was gentle and kind that was just so similar to Marco.

He swallowed his fear. It's been a year and a half since the incident at Trost and he should just suck it up already.

The door jingled when he opened it, and he looked up to see a small bell. Smart.

"Welcome!"

At the counter sat Carla. She smiled at him, and he waved.

"Something in particular you wanted?"

"Um. . ." Oh god, this was harder than he thought. "Do you make customized cakes?"

"Just a moment." The stool behind the counter screeched against the floor as Carla made her way into the back room.

She returned moments later with someone in tow.

It was Eren.

His hair was long, tied in a loose ponytail over his right shoulder, and his grey apron was stained with flour. His hands looked recently washed, and his smile faltered slightly as he saw Jean.

"Uh, hi."_ 'Damn. He's actually kinda pretty.'_

The smile returned in full bloom. "You wanted a cake?"

"Y-yeah. It's Marco's birthday tomorrow and. . ."

Eren's eyes held none of that former rage and determination. It was all pity and calmness, and Jean couldn't help but think it was so wrong.

"What was his favorite?"

"Lemon poppyseed."

"Alright! I'll have it done by tomorrow. Pop by then!"

"Thank you, Ere-Ellen."

Jean left, his heart pounding in his ears despite it being all the way in his stomach. Damn him, Eren, for being so. . . how would he describe it?

He pondered on it all the way back to the barracks.

* * *

"Eren?"

Eren looked up from the counter to see three very familiar faces. Carla was out with a couple of friends from the area, and wouldn't be home until dark.

"Hello, Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie. It's been a while. How are you?"

Annie shrugged, quiet as ever. The emblem on her shoulder showed she was in the Military Police, just as she wanted to be.

"I'm alright, and I've been doing well on the expeditions. I have a large kill meter," Reiner boasted. He seemed rather cheery, but Eren could spot the bags under his eyes and the wrinkles on his face. He was stressed, that much was obvious. Why though. . . that was a mystery.

"I'm. . . I think I'm going to quit the army," Bertholdt said. "There's too much blood, a-and guts, and it's just. . ."

Eren smiled. "Don't worry, I understand. Do you know what you'll do instead?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Bertholdt brought a hand up to his head, awkwardly scratching it.

"Well, can you bake?" Eren asked. His hair shifted as his head tilted.

"Sorta?"

"Perfect! I could use an extra pair of hands around here. Why don't you join Carla and I?"

"Y-you would let me?"

Eren blinked. "Why wouldn't I? You're a nice guy, I trust you, and you obviously aren't made for the battlefield."

And the tall boy who was forced to grow up far too soon began to cry. He made his way around the counter and hugged Eren.

He didn't expect such an acceptance, even if Eren didn't know what he had done in the past. Most in the army were thought to be unable to do other things that fight.

Maybe that was why he had been hesitant? Or did he expect Eren to hate him for something he didn't know that Bertholdt was guilty for?

"There, there. Don't you worry. You're welcome to stay with us. We have an extra room."

Bertholdt just cried harder.

Was this what a mother was?

* * *

**AN: phew. that was. wow. idk. i guess, eren kinda thought that he didn't have much of a purpose in life, so he decided to sacrifice himself for humanity, and destroy all the titans. by becoming ellen, carla's mom, he sort of gave himself a purpose, and that was to be carla's mom. thus, he no longer felt a need to kill the titans.**  
**about the bertholdt part, he just can't handle having to see so many soldiers die from the titans. it hurts him, because it reminds him that he killed so many people by destroying the walls.**  
**eren is a calmer person, and much gentler with people, he is changed, and very different from the titan killer he used to be. thus, he is a generous person who would let bertholdt stay with them until he could get on his own two feet. he gives him a job, because he really could use the extra hands.**

**Words: 1,936**


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